Texas Transit Association

The following three news articles relate to the Aug 28 action by the Texas Transportation Commission to “regionalize” transportation projects and place primary planning and funding responsibility on the regions.

*ARTICLE 1:*

*State wants to put big cities on streets*
By Patrick Driscoll San Antonio Express-News 08/29/2003

Realizing they can’t keep up with traffic congestion in metropolitan areas, state transportation officials want to pass the buck to local taxpayers.

A plan adopted Thursday by the Texas Transportation Commission encourages the state’s eight largest urban areas, including Bexar County, to issue bonds, add tolls and levy local gas taxes to stay ahead of growing traffic demands.

Some local officials say the plan, called the Texas Metropolitan Mobility Plan, reflects a lack of leadership.

“They’re asking the local governments to pick up the slack,” said County Commissioner Lyle Larson, who chairs the Metropolitan Planning Organization in San Antonio. “The people at the state and federal levels need to step up and take care of their highways.”

The plan, effective in 2005, also calls for the Transportation Commission to hand over federal and state highway funds to each metropolitan region rather than approving projects piecemeal.

That way, construction can be planned better and completed faster and cheaper, officials said.

“It’s kind of revolutionary,” said Tom Griebel, director of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition, an advocacy group. “It puts a lot of responsibility on the local area.”

However, state funds given to local entities still only will cover about a third of needs, and Texas’ population continues to explode. Thus the push for more local taxes and fees.

“We really don’t have much choice,” said Ric Williamson, one of the three members of the Transportation Commission.

Bexar County motorists have differing opinions about the state’s new approach.

“I would pay a little extra,” said Charles Riley, a lawyer who commutes from the Northwest Side to downtown in his small pickup.

“It would encourage people to car pool instead of having all these cars with one person in them causing traffic jams,” he said.

But Liz Martinez, a hairstylist who lives downtown and drives her compact sedan on U.S. 281 to get to work, said congestion isn’t to the point where local taxpayers should have to pay more.

“I don’t think it’s such a good idea,” she said. “I’ve just gotten used to it (traffic). It’s just patience and it’s not that bad.”

The mobility plan is such a fundamental shift in policy that new state laws will be needed for full implementation.

The Legislature would have to approve measures such as allowing local entities to collect vehicle registration fees or a gas tax and allow flexibility to spend funds on other modes of transportation such as trains and buses.

Some action could come as soon as next spring when the Legislature is scheduled to meet in a special session to deal with school funding. Griebel said a coalition of Texas urban officials may ask legislators to raise the gas tax statewide or allow local increases. Similar efforts failed in recent years.

For a low-income community like San Antonio, adding tolls or raising taxes may not be politically easy. Unlike Dallas and Houston, residents here pay no tolls to use highways and only pay half as much in sales taxes — a half-cent per dollar — to fund public transit.

“San Antonio historically hasn’t been able to generate much revenue on its own,” said Joanne Walsh, administrator of the local Metropolitan Planning Organization. “We all realize improvements are needed. But it is a challenge.”

Legislation approved earlier this year lets VIA Metropolitan Transit ask voters to raise the sales tax and use half the money for roads and the rest for transit. Officials say an election might be set for November 2004.

Other existing tools to raise local revenues for transportation include general-obligation bonds, traffic impact fees for developers and, in an effort under way in Bexar County, creating an authority to build and manage toll lanes.

Metropolitan planning organizations around the state likely will put together wish lists called for in the new mobility plan and use congestion levels to help prioritize projects.

The Transportation Commission must approve results. Also, separate plans based strictly on existing funds must still be done.

*ARTICLE 2:*

*State shifts duty of road planning to local officials*
By Kate Alexander AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF August 29, 2003

Texas officials shifted control over millions in transportation dollars to local decision-makers Thursday to ease congestion in the state’s urban regions.

The unanimous approval of the Metropolitan Mobility Plan by the state Transportation Commission signals a “monumental shift philosophically in the way we’ve done business in the past,” Commissioner Robert Nichols said.

That shift will enable the Austin region to determine its future transportation projects based on need, not on financial limitations, said Michael Aulick of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Under the plan, the state will dole out money from the Texas Mobility Fund to the eight most congested urban areas based on traffic, population, a congestion index and other factors. The plan was developed at the direction of Gov. Rick Perry.

CAMPO will determine the Austin area’s priorities for spending that money to reduce congestion. The money can be used for road upgrades, tollways, public transit or any other means to improve mobility.

The regional approach is a marked departure from the past strategy in which local officials tried to sell their individual projects to the Transportation Commission, which had money available for only 35 percent to 40 percent of the requests.

The previous process also discouraged local investment in transportation projects because that money could reduce the state’s contribution. Commissioner Ric Williamson said that practice will change under the mobility plan.

“The more you choose local sources of funds . . . the more money will be invested in your community,” Williamson said. The state will no longer “penalize, but rather reward the decision locally to invest in transportation infrastructure.”

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is poised to become a key source for that local investment, Aulick said. The authority is a coalition from Travis and Williamson counties established to build toll roads.

*ARTICLE 3:*

*Plan puts cities in driver’s seat*
*State changes mobility funding*
By LUCAS WALL Houston Chronicle Aug. 29, 2003

AUSTIN — Houston and other major metropolitan areas in the state will have more control over the planning and funding of transportation projects under a policy approved Thursday by the Texas Transportation Commission.

The Texas Metropolitan Mobility Plan’s goals are to accelerate highway construction and reduce congestion in metropolitan areas with populations of more than 200,000.

Under the previous policy, the Texas Department of Transportation, with approval from the commission, determined how much money was available every two years and then prioritized projects from metro regions across the state. Under the new rules, the state will now send block grants to regions for use as they see fit.

Officials estimate some $10 billion will be sent to eight metro areas in the next 15 years under a formula that accounts for factors such as population and traffic volume.

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels joined several government and business leaders from around the state in endorsing the initiative.

“This should mean a new emphasis on congestion relief in the major urban centers,” Eckels said after the meeting. “It’s a watershed event for the state.”

Eckels said establishing greater local control over transportation funds means Houston won’t have to fight Dallas or another metro region to get its projects built because each area will have a dedicated funding stream.

In the past, if a local government kicked in its own money to accelerate construction — such as the Harris County Toll Road Authority’s $250 million contribution toward widening the Katy Freeway — the state money that would have come to the area for that project in future years was lost. It would be given to the next project on the statewide list when that year arrived.

Harris County chose to help fund the Katy Freeway work to accelerate construction, and it will recoup its investment through tolls on the planned high-occupancy toll lanes. But that decision meant other regions were likely to get the $250 million state money a few years down the road since Houston wouldn’t need it for the Katy project.

“This will correct that inequity and turn it into a more fair system that allows us to plan over the long term, not only to use our local funds but draw down the state funds,” Eckels said.

Alan Clark, director of the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, whose organization handles transportation planning for the eight-county area, called it “a major milestone.”

While praising the plan, he said, “It’s a big challenge on the metro areas to say, `What is it we want to do; how are we going to solve this problem?’ ”

Steven Simmons, the Transportation Department’s deputy director, called it “a change in philosophy” for the agency.

“It’s going to guarantee a steady source of funding, give the regions options to find additional funding, and it’s going to find ways to deliver projects faster,” he said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

Simmons stressed that there will be state accountability for the money it distributes, with localities having to show how they are easing gridlock.

Michael Stevens, a Houston businessman who chairs the Governor’s Business Council’s transportation task force, told the three-member commission the state’s metro regions have been hampered by the requirements of designing transportation improvements within state and federal financial constraints.

“This plan addresses the importance of the massive movement of people into the urban areas,” Stevens said.

Work on the mobility plan adopted Thursday began in March, when Gov. Rick Perry directed the Transportation Department to formulate a blueprint to help urban areas reduce traffic snarls.

“This plan will allow increased local control in the planning, funding and delivering of highway, road and rail projects that will help meet the growing transportation needs of our state,” Perry said in a statement issued after Thursday’s unanimous vote.

Roger Baker, a resident of Austin, was the only person to speak against the plan. He said the state has the capability to fund only a fraction of requested highway projects and contended that the mobility plan simply shifts the shortfall from the state level down to local governments. The policy will encourage localities to add tolls to highways and go into debt, he argued.

Transportation Commissioner John Johnson of Houston, however, praised local agencies, including the Harris County Toll Road Authority, that are getting projects done faster by raising their own revenue.

“With this new plan, local transportation issues will be addressed and solved by the people most affected: local officials and citizens,” Johnson said.

The commission stressed that the formula used to distribute funds will include mass transit and that funds can be directed to bus and rail improvements where it’s demonstrated they will produce a travel-time savings.